Werewolf Mc-What?
by littleaiman026
Summary: Hermione embarrasses herself in front of the professor she fancies. A jealous Draco tries to comfort her.


**Prompt by** **: Talita Kum**

 **Prompt** **: Draco comforting Hermione.**

 **Prompted plot idea** **: Hermione has a crush on Professor Lupin. Draco is jealous.**

 **Should not include** **: Angst, character death, Draco!cruel**

 **Side characters** **: Remus Lupin and Severus Snape**

 **Genre** **: Romance, hurt/comfort**

 **Title** **: Werewolf Mc-What?**

* * *

 **AN** **: I hope you enjoy it!**

 **AkaShika0306 all but co-wrote this story with me, so most of the credit goes to her. I'm thankful for you :)**

 **-O-**

Draco always thought that Hermione Granger was above things like childish infatuation and crushes, and while Granger was the ultimate badass female he knew, even she wasn't immune to teenage infatuation. Of course, while the rest of the female population in their year pined after him, or maybe sometimes Saint Potter, Granger had to go and fall for a werewolf. Professor Werewolf McWerewolf a.k.a. Remus Lupin. Talk about infuriating.

"There there," Draco awkwardly patted her head. She glowered at him.

 _There should be a guide book on how to comfort the girl you're in love with as she cries over her crush_ , Draco thought to himself. Turning over a new leaf from being a world class git was more difficult than he had imagined. Much less rewarding too. Being a nice guy was so overrated.

"Merlin, I made such a fool of myself in Professor Lupin's class. He's going to think I'm a swot with no life," Hermione moaned.

"But you _are_ a swot with no life," Draco quipped. Forget being nice, it wasn't getting him anywhere anyway. He should stick to what he knows, which is being a thorn in Granger's side. It was way more fun.

She smacked him upside the head with a book. _Yes, familiar territory_ , he thought.

In that day's Defence Against the Dark Arts practical class on boggarts, Hermione's boggart had been Professor McGonagall telling her that she had failed all her classes. To make matters worse, Hermione had been too stunned to perform the correct spell and then Professor Lupin had to do it for her while the rest of the class laughed. Only Granger's real big fear could be failing classes. No sane person would fear failing more than, say, Voldemort, or werewolves, or even barking spiders.

And Granger never froze under pressure, which meant that she had it bad for the werewolf.

"Ah Miss Granger," Draco heard Professor Snape drawl from the entrance of the library. "Not failing our classes, I hope."

Draco inwardly groaned. Granger already had her spirits so low and he could see absolutely no scenario where his godfather could help that situation except make it worse.

"No professor, I'm top of all my classes, last I checked," Hermione shot back indignantly.

Draco stared at her, shocked.

With a swish of his midnight black robes, Professor Snape turned and walked away.

"What?" She said impatiently. "I'm upset doesn't mean I'll be talked down to."

Draco grinned. " _That's_ the Granger I know."

"Yeah well, nobody sees the Granger you know as a girl. I'm one of the boys for everyone." Granger put her head in her hands, looking defeated.

"I do," Draco said quietly after a long pause.

Hermione's head snapped up to look at him, he kept his eyes averted, fearing she would see through his jealousy and call him out on it. He feared losing what little friendship he had forged with her.

While he really did want to comfort Hermione, he was also irritated. Mostly because she was being so un-Granger-ish, that too over Professor Lupin.

Draco's patience was wearing thin. "Are you always this daft, Granger?" he said, exasperated. "Me. _I_ see you as a girl."

"Oh," she breathed.

* * *

Hermione bumped into a solid figure as she rounded the corner of the fourth floor corridor on her nightly prefect rounds. "Hey watch where –oh Professor Lupin, I'm sorry I was just finishing up my rounds. I'll uh, get to the dorms now," she stuttered, trying to hide her blush.

Remus Lupin smiled. "Would you care for a cup of tea, Miss Granger? I have Mister Malfoy practicing in my office, I understand both of you partner as prefects so maybe you could help him out a bit?"

Hermione followed Lupin into his office where Draco was sitting in a corner poring over a book on boggarts. He glanced up at her and she wondered why he was looking at her with such a strange expression. Her curiosity must have shown on her face because he immediately shrugged his shoulders and focused back on his book.

"Professor," Hermione said, realising he probably wants her to help Draco with boggarts, and she did not want to risk embarrassing herself again. "I don't think I'm someone you should ask for help with boggarts, I mean earlier today in class I couldn't…" she let the rest of her sentence hang. She could have sworn she _heard_ Draco roll her eyes from his corner of the room.

"Hermione," Lupin began but Draco interrupted him. "Sir, I promised Professor Snape I'd hand in my essay before curfew," he said.

Lupin nodded. "2 feet of parchment on boggarts tomorrow, Mr Malfoy."

Draco nodded, stole a quick glance at Hermione and walked out. Hermione knew he had already handed in his Potions essay. She wondered why he suddenly felt the need to flee. She knew it wasn't because of pureblood biases, those were long gone. And if by chance that was the case, she would hunt him down and hex them out of him if she had to.

"You know," Lupin said as he handed her cup of tea. "I understand being scared, believe it or not, I was like you once. I don't mean to be unkind here, but running away from your fear isn't all that Gryffindor, if you ask me."

Hermione gave him a weak smile. She knew ordinarily she wouldn't have messed up, but everyone made fun of her for being bookish, and having that very real fear exposed in front of everyone made her freeze in panic. She remembered glancing over at Draco after Professor Lupin had helped her out; he was the only one who didn't laugh at her. She was thinking about how far Draco had come –where once he would have used any excuse to make fun of her, now he comforted her when she was upset about others being cruel –when Lupin snapped her out of her thoughts. "-I was saying, would you like to give it a try?" He said.

"Oh, yes, of course."

"Okay, ready?" Lupin said as she levelled her wand at the ancient looking trunk in front of her. Lupin opened it and out stepped Professor McGonagall carrying exam papers marked T. Hermione reminded herself that it wasn't' real, that she had in fact scored O's in all her exams.

" _Riddikulus_ ," she pointed and swished, but it didn't work. The boggart turned into Draco being tortured by a giant snake. Hermione gasped just as Lupin started to step in. "No," Hermione said, "I'll do it."

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that it wasn't real. She tried to think of the funniest thing she could think of and pointed her wand at the boggart. " _Riddikulus_ ," the snake on Draco turned into Crookshanks, who was trying to snuggle up to him as he mock sneered at the cat while trying to hide his laughter. The image made something soar in Hermione's heart.

Still reeling from the utterly unexpected turn her boggart lesson had taken, Hermione stumbled into a chair and released a shuddering breath. Lupin offered her a glass of water. "You did great, Hermione. I'm not sure anyone could have handled that in just one try."

She nodded. She didn't have it in her to look him in the eye. She felt like he knew a secret even she herself didn't fully understand. Why Draco? Why not Ron, or Harry? And how had she suddenly found this comfort in Draco that she'd never found in Ron or Harry. While she loved the both of them, there was something about her feelings for Draco that was different.

"He's a good bloke, that one," Lupin said as if he had just read her thoughts.

* * *

Draco tried to act nonchalant as Hermione took her usual seat beside him in the library. "How was your lesson?" He tried to rein in his jealousy as a blush rose up in her cheeks.

"It was fine," she said, a little too casually.

"Alright Granger, seriously, so many blokes in our year but you had to go for a Professor. Couldn't find a guy your age like the rest of us, no," he rambled. He didn't have it in him anymore to hear her pine for Professor Werewolf anymore. He knew nothing would happen between them, of course. It was the kind of a crush you have on a famous celebrity twice your age where you don't even want anything to happen except for them to somehow notice you, but still, he was tired of it.

"Draco," Hermione prompted.

"Seriously Hermione, I mean Werewolf Mc-What?" he fumbled as she interrupted him with a phrase that sounded a lot like 'I like you'. "What?"

"You, you idiot. I like you, not Professor Lupin. Half the girls in school have a crush on him and yes I admire him, but I like you," she explained like she would explain something to a toddler. Or Neville Longbottom.

"You like me?" he asked. Maybe he was acting like a toddler, after all.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Not if you plan on being this daft all the time."

He leaned in and kissed her as she smiled. "I mean, I sort of like you too," he grinned.

"Yeah you're this jealous only when you sort of like someone," she mocked as she kissed him again.

 **-O-**

 **AN: Do review**


End file.
